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Wednesday, 18 April 2018

Hobbiton: Travel to an imaginary world

This article is going to please Lord of the Rings and Bilbo the Hobbit fans ou there. For those of you that have no clue about it, these books, which were then made into movie adaptations, are fantasy literature chef d'oeuvres.

J.R.R. Tolkien created a fantastic world and Peter Jackson, movie director, found in New Zealand the perfect landscapes to illustrate his vision.

During our stay in NZ, we have seen multiple locations that have been used for the movies. Hobbiton was the first one and by far the most special. First, because Tim is a fan and it was in his bucket list to go there. Second, because Hobbiton moves your to this imaginary world and provides an unique experience for the public.

Visit of Hobbiton

We have our tickets!

Our visit is planned for February 26th, morning. From there, a bus is taking us around to the village for a guided tour.

The bus to Hobbiton

From our first steps into the bus, we can feel the emotion. With the main theme as soundtrack, we go around the green hills before getting into the village.

Green hills and sheeps

Hobbiton has been firstly build in 1999 for the first three Lord of the Rings movies. As every set, they usually get destroyed. However in 2009, when they were filming for The Hobbit trilogy, they decided to use durable materials and open it to the public. It took them two years to build the village.

Even if around 30% of the visitors never saw the movies or read the books, it's impressive to be there.

In Hobbiton, with unreal landscape

It took a lot of efforts to the movie team in order to find the perfect landscapes for the movies.

For Hobbiton, they were looking at three criteria:

Green hills

A lake

A big tree next to the lake

They found it on a farmers land. The Alexander Farm.

Green hills, a lake and a big tree

Quickly, our guide cut the myth regarding the hobbit houses. In fact, behind each door, no real houses. Only one meter deep to be able to decorate what's behind the windows. For the rest of the scenes inside the house, they were filmed somewhere else. In front of each house, we can see items describing the hobbit's job.

A baker hobbit

Around Hobbiton, you can see different sizes of doors. Hobbits are supposed to be as tall as a 10 year old kid. So to create the illusion, they used small doors for humans and big doors for hobbits. This way hobbits looks "normal" and humans look like giants!

Big door - Artist pinter house

Small door - Tim looks like Gandalf!

Before ending our tour, we go to the Tavern.

The Tavern

Te Waihou Walkway

Next, we drive 20 kilometers to walk along the Te Waihou Walkway and see the Blue Spring.

Te Waihou Walkway

The water is clear and pure with blue/green color. We can also spot some green vegetation inside the water that looks like angel hair.